Chapter 1- Psychology

Skinner Box (Daughter)

Skinner raised his daughter in a baby tender, in which she grew very close to her father. She has no mental illness and is still alive and healthy

Psychology is about understanding all the things we do.

True

Rafael, a tennis coach, insists he can make any reasonably healthy individual into an internationally competitive tennis player. Rafael is echoing the thoughts of _____

John B. Watson

Comparisons to computers and cognition created interest in the study of memory, decision making, and problem solving

True

According to Freud, people ______ in control of their own minds.

Are not

Contemporary psychologists recognize that theoretical diversity is a strength

True

Natural selection favors behaviors that enhance organism's' reproductive success

True

The cognitive and biological perspectives have become more important theoretical orientations in modern psychology

True

Empiricism

the premise that knowledge should be directly acquired through observation rather than speculation, beliefs, or common sense

Psychology is Empirical

-it is based on objective observations made through research

Methods cannot be devised to study cognition scientifically

False

Humanist's Greatest Contribution

One of humanist greatest contribution to psychology has been innovative treatments for psychological disorders such as; client centered, Gestalt, and existential therapies

Cogition

Refers to the mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge

Psychology

-Psychology is the science that studies behavior and the physiological and cognitive processes that underlie behavior, and it is the profession that applies the accumulated knowledge of the science to practical problems

Behavior is shaped by cultural heritage

-cultural factors exert influence over most aspects of behavior

Free Will- Skinner

According to Skinner, free will is an illusion, because we are all controlled by our environment.

Biological

Subject matter- physiological, genetic, and neural bases of behavior in humans and animals Basic Premise- an organism's functioning can be explained in terms of the brain structures and biochemical processes that underlie behavior

Gazzaniga, Bogen, and Sperry

-Cognitive psychologist. They determined that the right and left halves of the brain are specialized to handle different types of mental tasks. They were researchers and they won the Nobel Prize in psychology

Difference and similarities do not occur across cultures

False

Positive Psychology focuses on pathology and ways to heal suffering

False

Character Strengths and Virtues

- by Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman -Attempts to present a measure of humanist ideals of virtue in an empirical, religiously scientific manner - CVS is intended to provide a theoretical framework to assist in developing practical applications for positive psychology -Wisdom and Knowledge- creativity, curiosity, open-mindedness, love of learning, perspective, inovation -Courage- bravery, persistence, intergrity, vitality, zest -Humanity- love, kindness, social intelligence -Justice- citizenship, fairness, leadership -Temperance- forgiveness and mercy, humility, prudence, self control -Transcendence- appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor, spitituality

Heredity and Environment Jointly Influence Behavior

-nature and nurture interactively shape most behavioral traits

Psychologists no longer to seek to understand the complex ways in which genetic inheritance and experience interact to shape behavior

False

From its earliest days, psychology has been involved in the treatment of mental illness

False

Psychologists rely upon guesswork, speculation, traditional beliefs, and common sense

False

Psychology Evolves in a Sociohistorical Context

- dense connections exist between what happens in psychology and what happens in society... in other words, a reciprocal relationship exists between society and psychology... trends, issues, and values in society affect psychology's evolution and progress in psychology affects trends, issues, and values in society.

People's Experience of the World is Subjective

-people tend to see what they expect to see and what they want to see

Hastorf and Cantril

Princeton - Dartmouth football game -1940s -Foul on a Princeton player... Princeton "didn't see the foul" but Dartmouth did -example of selected perception (choose what you want to see) -Demonstrated the study of perception -Studied human subjectivity

Why is psychology practical?

Gives us personal applications, such as coping with personal problems, coping with stress, improving self-control, and dealing with sleep difficulties. Psychology can help us find answers to pressing questions.

Animal Test Subjects

Animals were used preferably because they could have a considerable amount of control exerted on them (any behavior that is rewarded is likely to be repeated)

Humanistic

Subject Matter- unique aspects of human experience Basic Premise- Humans are free, rational beings with the potential for growth, and they are fundamentally different from animals

Behavior is Determined by Multiple Causes

complex causation is the rule, and single-cause explanations are usually incomplete -Behavior is governed by a complex network of interacting factors

Culture refers to...

widely shared customs, beliefs, values, norms, institutions, products of a community, transmitted over generations

Two trends that increase attention to culture as a behaviorism determinant

-Advances in communication, travel, and international trade have shrunk the world and increased Global interdependence - the ethnic makeup of the western world has become an increasingly diverse Multicultural mosaic

Cognitive

Subject Matter- thoughts and mental processes Basic Premise- human behavior cannot be fully understood without examining how people acquire, store, and process information

Gender Differences in Spatial Skills

The male's advantage in spatial navigation is seen in many animal species that do not exhibit the sex-based division of labor for hunting and gathering they see in animals

Evolutionary

Subject Matter- evolutionary bases of behavior in humans and animals Basic Premise- behavior patterns have evolved to solve adaptive problems; natural selection favors behaviors that enhance reproductive success

Psychoanalytic

Subject Matter- unconscious determinants of behavior Basic Premise- Unconscious motives and experiences in early childhood govern personality and mental disorders

John B. Watson

-Founder of behaviorism (theoretical orientation based on the premise that scientific psychology should study only observable behavior) -Proposed that psychologists abandon the study of consciousness altogether and focus exclusively on behaviors they could observe directly. -In essence, he was redefining what scientific psychology should be about. -To him, the power of the scientific method rested on the idea of verifiability. This power depends on studying things that can be observed objectively. -Mental experiences could not be studied scientifically

Humanism

-a theoretical orientation that emphasizes the unique qualities of humans, especially their freedom and their potential for personal growth -potential, uniqueness, freedom, rational, growth

Behavioral principles have little practical application in the real world

False

Psychometrics

-Is concerned with the measurement of behavior in the capacities, usually through the development of psychological tests - involved with the design of tests to assess personality, intelligence, and a wide range of abilities. It is also concerned with the development of new techniques for statistical analysis

A _______ is a system of interrelated ideas used to explain a set of ________

Theory, observations

Psychoanalytic Theory and Behaviorism

-considered to be dehumanizing -psychoanalytic theory was attacked for its belief that behavior is dominated by primitive, sexual urges -behaviorism was condemned for its preoccupation with the study of simple animal behavior -both failed to recognize the unique qualities of human behavior -not masters of their own destiny

Critical Thinking

-consists of knowledge of the skills or critical thinking -the cognitive component, as well as the attitude or disposition of critical thinking -the emotional or affective component

Seven Unifying Themes of Psychology

1. Psychology is empirical 2. Psychology is theoretically diverse 3. Psychology evolves in a sociohistorical context 4. Behavior is determined by multiple causes 5. Behavior is shaped by cultural heritage 6. Heredity and environment jointly influence behavior (nature AND nurture) 7. People's experience of the world is highly subjective

Cognitive perspective

Since 1976 the cognitive perspective has generated more published articles than any other perspective- makes this the most influential approach in psychology

World War 2

Because of the war, many academic psychologists were pressed into Service as clinicians. They were needed to screen military recruits and to treat soldiers suffering from trauma. Many of the psychologist found the clinical work to be challenging and rewarding and a substantial portion cuz you do the clinical work after the war. also some 40,000 American veterans, many with severe psychological scars, Return to speak post-war treatment at Veterans Administration hospitals. with the demand for clinicians far greater than Supply the VA stepped into Finance many new training programs in Clinical Psychology. Within a few years, about half of the new Phds in psych were specializing in clinical psych.

Psychology is Theoretically Diverse

- a variety of perspectives are needed to fully understand behavior

Skinner Box

-A small chamber in which a rat was placed, where Skinner could control the response -A moderate electric shock was delivered to the animal through the floor, and when a lever is pused (by the rat) the shock was turned out for a period of time

B.F. Skinner

-Harvard psychologist who questioned free will - Asserted that organisms tend to repeat actions that lead to positive outcomes, and tended not to repeat actions that led to neutral or negative outcomes -Like Watson, he emphasized how environmental factors mold behavior -Wrote Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971)

Transcontextual Skills

-critical thinking skills -used in a variety of contexts

Split- Brain Research

-study of patients with severed corpus callosum -involves sending messages to only one side of the brain -demonstrates right and left brain specialization -Left hemisphere- verbal processing, face recognition -Right hemisphere- Drawing/ Visual

Behavorism

-was the dominant school of thought in psychology during the 1950s and 1960s

_______ refers to any overt-(______) _________ or activity by an organism

Behavior, observable, response

______ psych examines _______ processes in terms of their ________ value for members of a _______ over the course of many generations

Evolutionary, behavioral, adaptive, species, generation

Psychology is all about proliferating truisms and unreliable findings.

False

Positive Psychology

Positive psychology uses Theory research to better understand the positive, adaptive, creative, and fulfilling aspects of human existence. - Martin Seligman was scolded by his five-year-old daughter Nikki for being grumpy all of the time - he realized that his approach to life was overly and unnecessarily negative - more importantly, he recognized the same assessment could be made in the field of psychology

Behavioral

Subject matter- effects of environment on the overt behavior of humans and animals Basic premise- only observable events (stimulus-response relations) can be studied scientifically